Jennifer Johnson, Writer/Editor

24/08/2026

Always a fear of mine. Bethany is extremely independent for an eight year old girl. But she has very little safety awareness. Only last week she ran into a main road without checking for safety and I had to run and grab her.

This morning, Stalen went to the bathroom by himself, just like he usually does. Independence and personal autonomy are so important. I can usually hear him, and I often walk to the bathroom to check on him.

But in between those check-ins, there was too much quiet.

I didn’t hear him unlock the house door. I didn’t hear the usual squeak of the door opening.

In a matter of seconds, he was quickly gone.

But he didn’t know that my husband was on the other side of the house door, in our garage. He was able to intercept him. Stalen was in his underwear, carrying his iPad, and heading out in the pouring rain.

I explained to him as best as I could why it wasn’t safe and why he can’t go outside without an adult. I’m not sure how much he understood in that moment.

But I’m sure he recognized the concerned, serious tone in my voice.

He went to his AAC device and typed, “sorry mom.”

My heart broke.

We have had so many close calls lately with elopement. It is one of my greatest fears, and lately, it has been weighing heavily on me.

Independence is important. Personal autonomy is important. But so is safety. Sometimes, as parents and caregivers, we are constantly trying to find that balance between giving our loved ones freedom and independence while also making sure they are safe.

And every close call is a reminder of just how quickly everything can change.

This is why elopement safety matters.

This is why families need every layer of protection available to them.

28/06/2026

I stepped on the scales this morning and had a shock. I had lost over ten lbs in a week. That couldn't be correct could it? I got off the scales and on again several times. The scales gave me the same answer.

Later, I tried again. Same reading. I was euphoric but then I thought again, that can't be right. So I googled: Can a heatwave mess up your scales? The answer was yes.

I pulled out the battery for a minute, then put it in again. I got back on the scales. The reading was 13 lbs higher!

I'm 100% gutted.

26/06/2026

Parenting autistic kiddos in a heatwave is exhausting. You turn the fan on. They turn it off. You put the blinds down, and they roll them up. You hide their duvet because they will insist on using it, even though the house is 29 degrees Celsius. The windows are open, but the child shuts them. Doors are opened for ventilation, but the child shuts them.

It's a constant battle...

17/06/2026

Help! I Think My Child Has ARFID: A Parents' Guide to Supporting Children with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (Help for Parents)

06/06/2026

WAS THE BIBLE COPIED CORRECTLY?

One of the most common objections to Christianity is that the Bible has been copied so many times that we can no longer know what it originally said.

At first, that sounds reasonable.

After all, if a document has been copied by hand for centuries, wouldn't mistakes accumulate until the original message was lost?

The problem is that this objection ignores the evidence.

The New Testament is the most well-attested document from the ancient world. Today, scholars have access to more than 5,800 Greek New Testament manuscripts, over 10,000 Latin manuscripts, and thousands more in other ancient languages. In total, there are over 24,000 manuscript copies and portions of the New Testament available for comparison.

To appreciate how remarkable that is, consider other famous ancient works. The writings of Julius Caesar survive in about 10 manuscripts. The historian Tacitus is preserved in just a handful of copies. Yet few people question whether we know what those authors originally wrote.

Not only do we have an enormous number of manuscripts, but many of them are very early. Portions of the New Testament can be dated within decades of the original writings. Complete manuscripts appear far closer to the originals than those available for most ancient literature.

Because we possess so many copies from different regions and centuries, copyist mistakes are often easy to identify. If a scribe accidentally omitted a word, misspelled a name, or skipped a line, scholars can compare thousands of manuscripts and detect the error.

Think of it this way. If there were only one surviving manuscript, mistakes would be difficult to identify. But when thousands of manuscripts agree with one another, they function as checks and balances.

Critics often point to the existence of textual variants. However, the overwhelming majority are minor differences involving spelling, word order, or grammar. In Greek, changing the order of words often does not change the meaning of the sentence. Most variants are so insignificant that Bible translators simply note them in the footnotes.

Even skeptical textual scholars acknowledge that no major Christian doctrine depends on a disputed passage.

Then there are the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Discovered beginning in 1947 near the Dead Sea, these manuscripts included portions of every Old Testament book except Esther. Some of them were over 1,000 years older than the oldest Hebrew manuscripts previously available.

Critics expected significant corruption of the text over time.

Instead, they found remarkable consistency. The book of Isaiah, for example, was found to be substantially the same despite being copied over many centuries. The differences that existed were overwhelmingly minor and did not affect the message of the text.

The Bible was not preserved because people copied it perfectly.

It was preserved because so many copies were made that mistakes became detectable.

In fact, the manuscript evidence for the Bible is so extensive that scholars can compare copies from different countries, centuries, and language families to reconstruct the original text with a very high degree of confidence.

Every ancient document was copied.

The question is whether it was copied reliably.

When judged by the same standards historians use for every other ancient work, the Bible stands in a category of its own.

27/05/2026

Life in a heatwave with an autistic child:

Open windows, close curtains on the sunny side of the house, turn the fan on, open the back door. Go make drinks for everyone.

Go back around the house opening windows again, closing curtains again, turn the fan back on, open the back door again because your autistic child has undone all of your work. Go make drinks for everyone again.

And repeat all day long....

Also, hide the winter pjs because she will insist on wearing them. Take the duvet off her bed because her room is like an oven.

Did I mention we live in a timber framed house that has no air conditioning because we are in Wales and although it's HOT it will only last a week before the weather turns back to rain.

23/05/2026

On free promotion again this weekend!

Why Believe in Jesus Today?: Timeless Teachings That Transform a Troubled World

22/05/2026

My daughter is struggling to produce melatonin naturally at the moment. There are such long daylight hours in summer. I just hope she's not up early again.